MiniBullyMom

I can identify with the micro cache dilemma - especially if you live in an urban area. I hike and run across great caches big enough for a TB but many are completely inaccessible during the winter. So I always keep in mind the size of the TB in relation to how long I'll keep it before deciding whether or not to grab it. Once or twice I've grabbed one in the fall because I know it's going to be stuck in a mountain cache til spring if I don't.

I found it rather disturbing today (at the Geocaching Block Party) to see people laying printed lists of 50-100 trackable codes on the trackables table. I watched dozens of people just picking the list up and photographing it. To me that's not finding a trackable, that's just spreading trackabke codes.That's asking for abuse of those codes. It seriously bothered me and to think that Groundspeak allowed lists to just lay there on the table. I was half tempted to grab them and destroy them.

I can attest about the frustration with disappearing TB's I had one disappear for five years from a TB Hotel in California. I confirmed with the cache owner that it was there (cache was located in his front yard) and asked him to hold on to it because I was going to be in California (I live in Washington) Once there I messaged the owner that I was in the area for a couple days and wanted to retrieve my TB from him. He conveniently ignored my messages, we went to the cache, cars were present out front but no one answered the door and the TB Hotel cache was completely empty even though online it supposedly had 8 different TB's in it. I had family members drop by to attempt to retrieve the TB on multiple occasions over the next six months with no luck. Four years later my TB appeared out of the blue in Texas at a geocaching event. I about fell over, it's moved more in the last three months than it has in 8 years.

My issue is about the opposite. I've spotted a TB decal on a particular car twice in the past three months. I can't log it because they have never activated it. I'm about ready to follow them and find a way to tell them to activate the TB Decal so people can start logging it.

By chance does anyone know if it is Vista compatible? I bought a new laptop over the winter and just realized that my trusty Belkin RS232 to USB adapter isn't Vista compatible. So as far as I can see - my options are: 1) Use a computer that's running XP - which means $$$ since all three of ours run Vista 2) Buy a new GPS - although tempting is just not what I really want to do 3) Go back to printing out everything instead of downloading coordinates into my eTrex Legend 4) Figure out what cable is going to work the first time around that doesn't cost more than a GPS that comes with a Vista compatible cable.

So....if you want to create the award go ahead and don't worry. Just remember that some may not appreciate it and find it offensive. Only you can decide whether or not you are willing to live with that.

I letterboxed for years before I started geocaching and found out that there was a Letterboxing Purple Heart Award that someone was the "caretaker" of. This person was not identified specifically but had an anonymous trail name associated with the "heart". Apparently whenever someone posted in the forums about an injury they sustained (or knew of someone sustaining) while in search of a letterbox the "award caretaker" would decide if they deserved a "purple heart". The "caretaker" felt that it had to be a very serious injury..go figure...and as a result rarely awarded it. Many felt that if you got seriously injured you were being irresponsible for continuing on the search..geocaching is a hobby and no hobby is worth your life! I was totally unaware of the "award" until I experienced a really bad reaction to stinging nettle brushing my knuckles while retreiving a letterbox. I am talking about my entire hand swelling up with giant hives that extended up my whole left arm. I ended up using my letterboxing buddy's epi-pen to stop the reaction...we were 8 miles from our car in the mountains, about 45 miles from medical care. My letterboxing buddy posted a comment about it online a few weeks later to see if an allergic reaction would actually qualified as a reason to get it. She got a reply from the "caretaker" of the award that it must be a serious injury such as a broken bone or something. Years later I found out that the "caretaker" was a veteran letterboxer and he only gave the award to people who were veteran letterboxers and wouldn't even consider anyone who had letterboxed for less than 5 years in order to weed out the Newbies as he put it. He figured it was his award, he created it and he created the "aura" around it and as such no one had any say!

My Mini loves going geocaching along with our Amer.Toy Fox Terrier. The dogs are great distractions! Like mentioned earlier sit/stay is a great command to have your dog know. Most especially when we humans are all doing the "I found the cache - happy dance" as it tends to get the dogs so excited..since we are! Nothing like trying to sign a logbook with your dogs jumping all over you, getting their leads tangled up with you and muddy paw prints all over your back and the logbook in quesiton.

Well..I received my UFD TB two days ago. I had actually forgotten about ordering it with all the holiday craziness going on this past month. It's goal is Sisialu, India. I checked on nearby caches and found that there are two caches less than 100 miles away! Alas, they are both virtual caches located in Dehli. The next closest caches are over 100 miles a way and one of them has been recently plundered/compromised with access apparently limited by the "caretakers" of where it is located. But I will say that I learned about the "JANTAR MANTAR's" purpose!! I also picked up a UFD at a local cache yesterday..what are the odds of that!!IT has a goal of Sukuta, Gambia! I'm going to go check it out now!! Cache ya all later!!

Well....most people think I have a bully for a kid. Which I do in a sense...but not how you think I do. I do have kids but they aren't bullies. But I do have a Miniature Bull Terrier..hence the mini bully and I'm a mom! Simple as can be...but then my son and daughter do both play full contact ice hockey. The daughter rules the neigborhood since she is one year older than all the boys and there have never been girls living nearby except for about 6 months in Kindergarten. Hmmm..maybe I should reconsider my name and make it TomBoyMom!! LOL

yup..it always adds an element of fun when your GPS shows the location with 90 feet of accuracy! Then there was the time quite recently when I was walking along cliff that was about 10 feet in the air along our waterfront and the GPS was showing that I was 6 feet below sea level! Um...I don't think so!!

Okay...I took the plunge and picked up a nice iPAQ 3850 via a screaming deal on ebay..alas it didn't come with the user manual. I've never used a Pocket PC before but am able to point, click and figure out most stuff on my own. But I don't know how to download/sync a program to the iPAQ. I'm getting ready to head out to the ocean next weekend and want to go paperless. I've read most of the discussions on paperless caching but to be quite frank most of them deal with Palm Pilots and I'm more confused than ever and need help. Does anyone out here have an iPAQ and what program do you use? How do I download it and where does it store the files? I mainly want to be able to view caches in the areas where I'll be traveling without carrying around huge quantities of paper. I have a 1G SD Card, wireless network card and expansion pack on the way too. Thanks, MiniBullyMom

Having participating in Letterboxing for a couple of years I finally "took the plunge" into geocaching after my dad had a heart attack last year and was looking for a way to get some excercise. Two years previously on a cross country trip I had introduced him to letterboxing. So I could probably say I see both sides of the cache/box. Before I geocached I would hear about cachers that had destroyed letterboxes, natural areas and such in their search for caches. Most letterboxers feel that their sport spawned geocaching and that theirs is the "pure form" and that geocaching is just "cheating". But admittedly most of them have never geocached. Yeah a set of written clues that you have to decipher may appeal to some while looking at a simple set of coordinates on a GPS seems to be too easy. What they don't understand is that a GPS doesn't get you closer to the cache than a written set of clues gets them to a letterbox. As mentioned before, geocachers innocently have happened upon letterboxes and took stamps by mistake. Nine times out of ten the 'cachers may not even realize that 'boxers may of spent many hours handcarving the stamp for the box. Stamps are unique to the boxes and to the 'boxers. Both sports have a similar goal of finding a cache/box in a neat place! So what happens is that we all end up looking at areas that would be great for hiding a box/cache! Most letterboxers don't realize that the same complaints are said about them that they say about us! In summary, why do I cache...well...my dad is a technology geek and loved the fact that he was able to use his GPS for something other than hunting. He needed to get out and knew I liked the whole "search" since we letterboxed together. THere were more geocaches in our area than letterboxes and I had pretty much found all of the letterboxes already. Looking back over the past four years of enjoying both sports I can say that it is easier to place/hide a cache than it is a letterbox in urban areas. Finally...as we all know....GPS Coordinates can be way off so I don't consider geocaching an easy, no brainer version of letterboxing. Afterall you can only create a logbook/stamp combination to be so small. I think the smallest letterbox I ever found was a 35mm film canister and I know I've found plenty of caches smaller than that!